Saturday, November 11, 2006

The Vatican exerted pressure on the government of Israel earlier this week by condemning a scheduled Gay Pride event. The Vatican's communique to Israel's ministry of foreign affairs began as follows: "The Holy See has reiterated on many occasions that the right to freedom of expression, sanctioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of this right would offend the religious sentiments of believers."

The Holy See was expressing concern that such a demonstration would be an affront to the religious values of Jews, Muslims, and Christians for whom Jerusalem is a sacred, holy city.

What the Vatican fails to recognize, however, is that the gay men and women who would be demonstrating to express pride in their God-given identity are, most likely, themselves faithful Jews, Muslims, and Christians. The fact that their co-religionists betray their own Faiths by condemning a whole group of God's children does not give the "religious sentiments" of these particular believers more significance than the views of their gay brothers and sisters.